5 replies to this topic

[Andrrew1]

A friend has a serious brain stem injury following a riding accident and is confined to bed/wheel chair with very limited use of her upper body. Her speech is impaired but her brain is not.

Does anyone know of a system whereby she could be enabled to communicate via computer, please? Are there people who specialise in assessing potential and recommending solutions? Any thoughts welcome. Thanks. Andrew

PS We are in the UK

[cas]

Hi. I'm sorry to hear about your friend. I have no experience of brain stem injuries, but just wanted to welcome you to the forum. Hopefully someone on here will have the experience and answers you need. I too was injured on my horse- I hope your friend makes a good recovery.

[sh1wn]

Can she move her head? Even if just a for few inches? If so she should be able to use a smartnav-4 ( http://www.naturalpoint.com/smartnav/ ) to control the mouse and she can then use a laptop with a on-screen keyboard to type with, make sure you get the model that includes dwell clicking, this means you can set it so the mouse will click automatically when the cursor stays still for so long, you can set it whatever time you wish.

[Andrrew1]

cas, on 01 January 2011 - 04:33 PM, said:

Hi. I'm sorry to hear about your friend. I have no experience of brain stem injuries, but just wanted to welcome you to the forum. Hopefully someone on here will have the experience and answers you need. I too was injured on my horse- I hope your friend makes a good recovery.

Thanks for your concern. I'm afraid that recovery is not on the cards so we must try to make the best of a bad job.

sh1wn, on 02 January 2011 - 12:56 AM, said:

Can she move her head? Even if just a for few inches? If so she should be able to use a smartnav-4 ( http://www.naturalpoint.com/smartnav/ ) to control the mouse and she can then use a laptop with a on-screen keyboard to type with, make sure you get the model that includes dwell clicking, this means you can set it so the mouse will click automatically when the cursor stays still for so long, you can set it whatever time you wish.

She can move her head but a lot of her arm and head movements are involuntary. Her head is stuck at an angle so she can't swivel her neck easily.

Having said that I very much appreciate your reply and I will get more info on your suggestion.

Thanks again.


Andrew

[my-sister]

Hi. I'm sorry to hear about what your friend is going thru. I met a person at the hospital who was only able to blink and he used his jaw to reply yes or no... i don't know about any tech stuff regarding computers, but the hospital staff communicated with this person by saying the alphabet and the person blinked for the letter and he spelled out everything... after a while, his carers were able to predict some of his words and their communication went very well. There are also ways to make a list of common requests and needs that your friend could blink for...
my heart goes out to you <3

[sh1wn]

You could make up some communication boards for her, here are some examples from goggle pictures,
http://www.google.co...iw=1366&bih=681